KITCHEN CURATIONS: SUMMER TOMATO SALAD

This recipe is so embarrassingly simple, it’s honestly barely a recipe. But, with only 2 weeks left of summer, it’s the perfect way to make the most of your summer tomatoes without having to spend too much time inside. In fact, you could actually make this entire dish poolside so that you don’t miss any of those summer rays. So fill up your glass of rosé and get cooking…or actually fake cooking since there is no actual cooking in this “recipe.”

INGREDIENTS:

• Tomatoes, any kind. Here’s what I used:
  • 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
  • ½ heirloom tomato, quartered
  • 3 little yellow tomatoes, quartered
• 4 basil leaves, chiffonade
• ½ red onion, thinly sliced
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. (I told you it was embarrassingly simple!)

A FEW NOTES ABOUT THIS RECIPE:

• In my humble opinion, the more variety in your tomatoes, the better. Not only will the colors look beautiful together, but each tomato has a slightly different taste and texture, which will add more depth to the salad.
• Because we are keeping the onions raw, make sure to slice them very thinly. No one wants to bite into a huge chunk of raw onion.
• "Chiffonade" is just a fancy word for "cut into thin strips." To do this, layer your basil leaves and roll them together lengthwise so that it looks almost like a cigar. Then simply slice across the "cigar" and you will have a perfect basil chiffonade!
• You honestly don’t need any olive oil, but if you insist, add a tablespoon.
• The longer this salad sits, the better it will get. (Okay, 2 weeks is pushing it.) Letting it sit overnight will allow the onions to mellow out and all of the juices and flavors to mix.